SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
climate disasters
Helene and Milton Prove It's Time to Make Polluters Pay for Climate Disasters
Recent polling shows that 70% of US voters support making oil and gas companies pay their fair share for these fossil fuel-driven catastrophes. What are we waiting for?
Oct 10, 2024
“There would be much more violent weather – more storms, more droughts, more deluges.”
That prophecy isn’t from the Book of Revelation, but from a confidential 1989 Shell Oil memo the company commissioned to better understand what global warming could mean for their business in the decades to come.
Today, the sentence reads like a daily weather report. In the last few weeks, we’ve seen the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene, a “deluge” that wiped out entire towns and sent homes and semi-trucks spiraling down rivers of mud, and now Hurricane Milton, one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded. In Nepal, extreme flooding there has claimed over more than 200 lives and left parts of the capitol underwater. Meanwhile, the Amazon is facing its “worst drought on record,” further endangering what scientists have referred to as the “lungs of the world.”
“Civilisation could prove a fragile thing,” wrote the authors of the 1989 Shell memo. Indeed. As we’ve seen over the last few months, even supposed climate havens, like Asheville, NC, have been undone by extreme weather. We’ve entered an age where our civilization, no matter where we live, will likely be in need of constant upkeep and repair in the face of ever worsening climate disasters. Rebuilding our communities, and strengthening them for the challenges ahead, will be an ongoing struggle for generations to come.
For more than 70 years the fossil fuel industry has continued to rake in profits without paying a single dollar for the damage they knew their product was causing to our climate and communities.
Which raises the question: how are we going to pay for all of this? Early estimates put the damage of Hurricane Helene at over $200 billion and Hurricane Milton at $175 billion, astronomical figures that still can’t begin to calculate the cost of the lives lost and communities upended. That’s on top of the more than $150 billion a year the US government estimates Americans are already paying for extreme weather events. And that’s a low end estimate. According to a study released earlier this year in Nature concluded that the cost of climate damages to the global economy could reach $38 trillion a year by 2050.
Right now, those costs are coming out of one place in particular: our pockets. Even if your home hasn’t been washed away by a flood, you’re likely paying more for your home insurance due to others that have. Even if your farm hasn’t been wrecked by drought, you’re now paying more for your groceries at the supermarket. The dollars your town had set aside for a new school? They’re now being spent to rebuild roads or repair a bridge that got wiped out by yet another “100-year” flood.
Faced with these ever mounting costs, some local leaders are turning to a different solution: making polluters pay their fair share for the damage they’ve done. After all, that 1989 Shell memo isn’t the only example that fossil fuel companies knew exactly the consequences of the ongoing use of their product. As early as the 1950s, oil and gas companies knew about the dangers of global warming, but instead of warning the public and moving to clean energy, they went on to spread lies and disinformation to protect their profits.
Put another way, for more than 70 years the fossil fuel industry has continued to rake in profits without paying a single dollar for the damage they knew their product was causing to our climate and communities. Instead, they’ve very intentionally “externalized” those costs onto the rest of us, not only in the form of climate impacts, but in terms of our health, local environments, and more.
Now the bill is coming due. This May, Vermont became the first state in the country to pass a Climate Superfund Act that will make oil and gas companies pay into a fund that can be used for climate adaptation and disaster response. Five other states are debating similar legislation, including in New York, where legislators passed a climate superfund bill in June and are now waiting on Governor Kathy Hochul’s signature (last week, activists delivered more than 127,000 signatures to the Governor’s office demanding she stop dragging her feet and sign the bill into law). In September, Senator Van Hollen and Representative Jerry Nadler introduced a federal Climate Superfund bill that would collect $1 trillion from oil and gas companies to be used for relief and resiliency efforts nationwide.
The push for state and federal climate superfund bills is running in parallel to the now dozens of city, state, county, and Tribal governments who have filed lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry for climate lies and damages. These lawsuits could recoup even more money from oil and gas companies for damages, as well as uncover yet more evidence of their ongoing fraud and deception. In addition to these civil cases, some experts and attorneys are now proposing bringing criminal charges against oil companies for the “wrongful deaths” associated with extreme weather events (expect to hear more about climate homicide in the months ahead).
The devastation caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and similar climate disasters around the world, demands more of a response than the “thoughts and prayers” offered by politicians still in the pocket of Big Oil. Recent polling shows that 70% of US voters support making oil and gas companies pay their fair share for climate damages. It’s time for our leaders to answer that call and make polluters pay.
Keep ReadingShow Less
In First, Vermont Ready to Make Fossil Fuel Giants Pay for Climate Damage
"If you contributed to a mess, you should play a role in cleaning it up," said one supporter of a bill that could be a model for other states to follow.
May 09, 2024
Offering a model for others to follow, Vermont this week became the first state in the nation to pass legislation that would require fossil fuel giants to pay for the damage and disruption caused by their planet-warming products.
While it remains likely Republican Gov. Phil Scott will veto the bill passed by the state Senate in March and the House on Monday, the legislation—now heading for his desk—was celebrated as a blueprint for others to imitate.
As Vermont Publicreported:
Modeled after the federal Superfund program, the policy would require companies like ExxonMobil Corporation and Shell to pay Vermont a share of what climate change has cost the state in recent decades. Vermont would use those payments to establish a program to fund recovery from climate-fueled disasters and work to adapt to the state’s already-changed climate.
Vermont could become the first state in the country to enact such legislation. New York, California, Massachusetts and Maryland are all considering similar bills, as is Congress.
The fossil fuel industry has opposed the measure and vowed legal action if it becomes law. In March, the American Petroleum Institute (API), which represents oil and gas companies, called the legislation "bad policy" and argued that it "may be unconstitutional" for holding corporations responsible for what society at large has done.
Evidence has shown, however, that the fossil fuel industry knew about the climate impacts of burning coal, oil, and gas for decades, but hid those understandings from the public as it fought efforts to curb emissions or mitigate the damage being done.
"If you contributed to a mess, you should play a role in cleaning it up," Elena Mihaly, vice-president of the Conservation Law Foundation's Vermont chapter and a supporter of the bill, toldThe Guardian.
Like many other states, Vermont has suffered expensive damage from climate-related weather events in recent years—costs that proponents of the bill say should not be shouldered by the state alone when it's so clear the role that the fossil fuel industry has played to create the current crisis.
"You see towns across the state underwater, and communities and businesses financially devastated. The reality of the climate crisis just really comes crashing home," Ben Edgerly Walsh, climate and energy program director for the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, toldNBC News following passage in the House. "These are facts that we are dealing with in real time that we need the financial resources to deal with."
If Scott vetoes the bill, lawmakers in the state House and Senate would both have to muster a two-thirds majority to override his rejection.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Climate Crisis Forces FEMA to Expand Disaster Aid
"Without robust cuts to fossil fuels, programs like these will only expand exponentially," said one writer.
Jan 22, 2024
An entry in the Federal Register on Monday explicitly notes that new rules pertaining to government disaster assistance have been finalized due to the climate crisis, with the Federal Emergency Management Agency expecting to increase its costs by $512 million per year implementing the policies.
FEMA said it is overhauling its disaster aid rules after outcry from survivors of hurricanes and other extreme weather disasters, with people who have been forced to rebuild their lives reporting that delays in receiving assistance and bureaucratic red tape have worsened their suffering.
As "extreme weather events are increasing in intensity as well as frequency," said FEMA in the interim final rule published in the Federal Register, the agency is expanding eligibility for assistance and reducing the steps survivors will need to go through to get help.
Sunrise Movement, the national climate action campaign that has pushed the Biden administration to declare a climate emergency and "reform the Federal Emergency Management Agency's approval processes for aid," applauded FEMA's announcement.
"The pressure is working," said the group.
Under the new rule, FEMA will expand access to immediate direct payments of $750, which households can get after evacuating their home in the event of flooding, wildfires, and other climate disasters. The agency said renters and people with low incomes will particularly be helped by the rule.
FEMA is also establishing a Displacement Assistance program to provide more financial aid to people who need to stay in hotels or with friends or family.
Survivors will no longer be required to apply for aid from the Small Business Administration before they can get assistance from FEMA. People who are self-employed and who have work equipment that gets lost or damaged in a climate disaster will be eligible for additional aid for replacements, and people whose homes are damaged will be able to more easily access funding to rebuild.
Homes that previously had structural problems like leaky roofs will now be eligible for repair funds, and FEMA will pay for upgrades to help people with disabilities, such as ramps.
People who miss application deadlines will no longer have to document why they were late, reducing paperwork for people whose daily routines have been upended.
"The regulatory changes in this rule seek to add efficiency in the delivery of assistance to survivors by simplifying processes, removing barriers to entry, and increasing eligibility for certain types of assistance under the program," the published rule reads.
FEMA said that in addition to responding to feedback from survivors, it was making the changes because "climate change has elevated the need for the delivery of efficient disaster services."
"Extreme weather events are increasing in intensity as well as frequency," said FEMA. "Sustained changes in climate have exacerbated the physical risks and threats coastal communities are exposed to every day. As climate change threatens to bring more extreme events like increased floods, sea-level rise, and intensifying droughts and wildfires, [it] is our responsibility to better prepare and support communities, families, and businesses before, during, and after disasters."
As planet-heating fossil fuel emissions persist each year, FEMA is spending more from its disaster fund, according to federal data. From 1992-2004, the agency spent about $5 billion each year to respond to hurricanes and other disasters, but between 2005-21, it spent about $12.5 billion per year.
In 2022, the world's costliest climate disaster of the year happened in the U.S.—Hurricane Ian, which cost about $100 billion in damages.
"The troubling reality" behind the news that FEMA is overhauling its assistance programs, said writer Ryan Meehan, is "that without robust cuts to fossil fuels, programs like these will only expand exponentially."
The fact that the Biden administration is acknowledging that the climate crisis is the reason for the expansion, he pointed out, offers the latest reason for President Joe Biden to strengthen his response to the crisis.
"I'm no expert," said Meehan, "but these seem like the conditions for a climate emergency."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular